Every artificial thing is ultimately made out of things from the natural world. Take something as simple as a knife: the steel that the blade is made of started out as iron ore somewhere in the ground, and the wood that the handle is made of started out as a tree. Every component and sub-component of every artificial thing can be traced back to the natural world. For example, the silicon in computer chips starts out as quartz ore somewhere in the ground; the phosphorus in artificial fertilizer starts out as phosphate rock somewhere in the ground; and medication starts out as organic and inorganic compounds somewhere in the natural world. Similarly, every tool (every piece of mining equipment, every piece factory equipment, every solvent, and every catalyst) used in the process of transforming the natural world into artificial things can also be traced back to the natural world.
Additionally, every step in the process of transforming the natural world into artificial things involves human action leveraging natural human abilities (like sensorimotor skills, cognitive skills, and social skills). Of course, there are a lot of tools used in the process, but ultimately people have to use their natural abilities to build, install, maintain and operate those tools. For every tool, as we appreciate the value of the tool, we should also appreciate the value added by the people using their natural abilities to build, install, maintain, and operate those tools, as well as to teach those skills to future generations. For example, as we appreciate that cranes can be used to lift much heavier things than people ever could without them, we should also appreciate how crane operators use their eyes, hands and legs to operate a crane; how they coordinate with others before, during and after moving something with a crane; and how new crane operators are trained. As we acknowledge that computers can be used to store much more information, and process it much faster than people ever could without them, we should also appreciate the part that the dexterity of the human hand plays in inputting information into a computer.
Intangible artifacts (like poems, bank account balances, laws, and software) can also be ultimately traced back to the natural world. Intangible artifacts start out as ideas, knowledge or memories in people's brains. From there they can be exchanged with other people using natural language (spoken or signed), consciously or subconsciously, and gradually across geographical regions and across generations. Over time, people have come up with written languages which have allowed more ideas to be stored and exchanged further and faster both geographically and generationally. Written language is fundamentally the inscription and the subsequent interpretation of physical patterns on physical media. This is more obvious for writing and drawing on paper, clay tablets or cave walls and because the inscribed patterns can be perceived by unaided human senses (sight or touch). For media like film, magnetic tape, optical disk, magnetic disk, and solid-state storage, the inscribed patterns are microscopic and ultimately require additional tools to inscribe and subsequently magnify to the scale of human perception. Ultimately, people still need the ability to interpret the physical patterns, and the ability to inscribe them or to build, maintain and operate the tools to inscribe and magnify microscopic patterns. That is, written language requires literacy, and people ultimately have to use natural language to exchange and pass down literacy skills. Intangible artifacts ultimately have to exist on some physical media and/or in people's brains, and ultimately natural language has to be used either to spread the artifacts or to spread the literacy skills required to interpret their representations, so they are ultimately grounded in the natural world and natural human abilities.
Unattended artificial things would eventually be reclaimed by nature (different things at different rates, but eventually none would be spared). Static structures (like buildings, roads, and bridges) would be eroded, buried, and overgrown with plant life; inorganic materials (like metal, glass, and ceramics) would be corroded and oxidized; organic materials (like wood, and paper) would rot; and eventually all would be reclaimed by geological processes. Dynamic systems (like power plants, water treatment plants, and automated factory equipment) ultimately comprise static structures, inorganic components, and organic components, in some sort of feedback loop. The feedback loop could go on for some time unattended, but it would eventually be knocked off course by some natural event (for example, an unattended hydroelectric power plant would eventually be clogged by sediment, and solar panels would eventually be covered by debris).
All in all, artificial things ultimately embody parts of the natural world and human action that has gone into transforming those parts of the natural world into those artificial things and into attending to those artificial things such that they are not reclaimed by nature. The depth of this embodiment is easily forgotten or underestimated in the modern world. Users of the final product can be very distant and oblivious of the parts of the natural world and the human action that collectively have gone into creating the final product. When people are aware of the tools used in the process, they can underestimate or be oblivious of how natural human abilities are leveraged to build, install, maintain and operate those tools.
Most people buy the things they use regularly, so they can often be oblivious of the depth of the other side of the transaction. Most people also specialize in narrow fields of work, so they can often be oblivious of the depth of distant specializations. Many people specialize in knowledge work (which is more focused on cognitive skills, and collaborating and cooperating on cognitive tasks) so, they can often be oblivious of sensorimotor skills, and collaboration and cooperation on physical tasks that are equally important for building, installing, and maintaining physical things. Ultimately, money and knowledge work do not magically manifest things. Money is ultimately just a very effective and scalable collaboration and cooperation tool: for example, you can't buy a knife unless some people have dug something up from the ground, felled some trees, and transformed all that into a knife. Similarly, knowledge work is ultimately just a very effective and scalable tool for collaboratively and cooperatively figuring out and planning the physical actions to be done in the physical world to transform it into artificial things: ultimately, people have to use their sensorimotor skills to perform physical actions in the physical world to transform it according to the designs and plans (like blueprints, Gantt charts, and staffing plans) that knowledge work yields.
For example, knowledge work (like architecture, engineering, and project management) is necessary but not sufficient in the construction of a building. The work of tradespeople (like crane operators, masons, carpenters, and electricians) is equally important to the eventual existence of the building. Ultimately, it also requires a complex supply chain starting from different parts of the natural world just to get the plans, tools and materials to the construction site. There are a lot more people who indirectly play a small but ultimately necessary part in the eventual existence of the building. The mechanical engineers designing mechanical tools (like cranes and concrete mixers) play a part. The machinists fabricating the parts for the mechanical tools play a part. The civil engineers and tradespeople that build the roads that lead to the construction site play a part. The software engineers maintaining the CAD software that the engineers use play a part. The people drilling the oil that eventually yields the fuel used to transport people and materials to the construction site play a part. The farmers farming the food to feed all the people that play a part play a part. The people working at the restaurant where the construction crew occasionally goes for lunch play a part. Many more people than I could list here play a small but necessary part.
Because artificial things are ultimately grounded in the natural world and human action upon that natural world, there are generally more artificial things where there are more people. For example, there are more buildings in places with higher populations; there are denser networks of roads, electric lines, and water lines in more densely populated areas; there are more cars where there are more people; there are more phones where there are more people; and so on. There can be fewer artificial things in places with a lot of people, where the people live closer to nature, but generally, the upper limit on the amount of artificial things in a geographical location is limited by the number of people living and working there. Without enough people to attend to existing artificial things, the clock starts ticking for the neglected things towards being reclaimed by nature.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also an artificial thing, ultimately grounded in the natural world and human action upon that natural world. Functional AI is more than just a machine learning model. The model in and of itself is an intangible artifact which ultimately exists as physical patterns inscribed onto physical storage media. Those patterns are inert until they are fed into a powered computer processor. Modern storage media and processors are partly made of silicon which ultimately starts out as quartz ore somewhere in the ground. The process of transforming quartz ore into a functional storage or processing chip involves the use of mining equipment, factory equipment, chemical solvents, catalysts, among many other things, which are all ultimately grounded in the natural world and human action. While in use, the chips have to be powered with electric power generated and transmitted by infrastructure that is also ultimately grounded in the natural world and human action. AI is ultimately the culmination of the work of a lot of people, each playing a small but significant part to transform the parts of the natural world into chips, and power generation and delivery systems, among many other things, all ultimately grounded in the natural world and human action. Ultimately, even people whose work only goes towards keeping the people building, installing, maintaining and operating the underlying systems fed and clothed play a part in the eventual existence of AI.
As amazing as the software for self-driving cars is, equally important (if not more important) contributions to the ability to drive cars from one place to another include: transforming natural uneven terrain into roads, mining metal ore and transforming it into cars, drilling oil (to the order of billions of litres per day) and transforming it into fuel to power some of those cars, and maintaining power generation and delivery systems that power another set of those cars. If those were neglected, the whole system would eventually be reclaimed by nature: roads would be eroded, buried and overgrown; cars would rust; oil wells would collapse in on themselves; and hydroelectric power plants would be clogged by sediment.
Similarly, as amazing as LLMs are, equally important (if not more important) contributions to making them functional include: passing down literacy skills to future generations (for example, by teaching children to read and write); mining quartz (to the order of hundreds of tonnes per day) and eventually transforming it into processor, memory and storage chips; transforming the quartz and other things (also mined for somewhere) into the screens on which LLM generated text is read. If those were left unattended, the whole system would eventually be reclaimed by nature.
Like any other artificial thing, AI is ultimately grounded in the natural world and human action upon that natural world, and the natural world and people are ultimately subject to the outer loop.
Feedback and comments are welcome via email.